‘Miss Korea’ ladies in the 1970s looked different, beautiful long before Photoshop existed

Last April, a case of overdose on Photoshop caused a group of ‘Miss Korea’ contestants to look like cloned beauties produced by the same plastic surgeon. Though it is now clear that the ladies were not high technology clones created to take over the pageant, the incident made some of us feel that beauty pageants these days are geared towards finding a certain type of beauty standard, rather than celebrating the beauty in different women.

Is it really necessary to “enhance” the beauty of these already stunning women? Let’s take a look at the Miss Korea pageant ladies before the era of Photoshop and cosmetic surgery!

The first Miss Korea beauty pageant reminiscent of the current contests was officially held in 1957, though selections for ‘Miss Korea’ dated back to as early as 1952, and Korea making its debut in the Miss Universe pageant in 1954. Pictures from the early years of the annual national beauty pageant show that contestants were judged based on a procedure similar to what we’re familiar with today, with several judging phases which required the ladies to wear different outfits.

▼ Even as early as in the 1960s, the Miss Korea pageant was a considerably large-scale event.

▼ Contestants had to dress in various outfits.

▼ One-piece swimsuits were the norm back then, before bikinis took over the stage.

▼ The winner gets the parade of her life in this funky vehicle.

In the 1970s to 1980s, women with fuller faces and figures were preferred, but when it got to the 1990s, smaller faces with sharper outlines were considered to be the most beautiful. In the 2000s, the trend seemed to shift towards healthy, lean figures and characteristic faces. Though the standard for “beauty” changes over time, some of these past contestants still stand a good chance in today’s pageants, don’t you think?